An Enormously English Monsoon Wedding Read Online Free PDF

dress?’
    ‘Don’t pry about my wedding outfit. It’s not allowed. And I’m practising because I’m wearing heels on my hen night. Actually –’ she wrinkled her nose at him ‘– I’m going barefoot on our wedding day.’
    ‘Oh, good.’
    They laughed together. It was so lovely, Erin thought, to be madly, insanely in love, and blissfully happy, and be best friends and understand one another so well. And then to be married as well …
    Oooh …
    She really, really, really couldn’t wait for the wedding day.
    Six weeks and counting.
    ‘Ouf!’ Erin exhaled as they stepped from the cool darkness of the Swan and into the full glare of the sun. ‘Anyway, sorry – I think we got a bit side-tracked by shoes, or lack of them. You said you were in Maizey St Michael because you had a farm visit, which I know isn’t the best sort of call-out for you, and …?’
    ‘A pony with a damaged hoof.’Jay carried the drinks across the lawn. ‘Luckily it was something I could deal with, but again, I’m a small animal specialist and this is such a rural area I really need someone in the practice who can handle the needs of the farm livestock. I’m having to turn a lot of work away at the moment.’
    ‘I know.’ Erin nodded as they made their way across several tiny weather-worn bridges. ‘And you’d like to keep it all in-house rather than passing it on to other practices? That makes sense. So, are you going to advertise?’
    Jay shook his head. The ice cubes danced in the spritzers. ‘No, actually I was thinking of offering Kam a partnership.’
    ‘
Kam
?’ Erin erupted with laughter, luxuriating in the cooling breeze from the river, as they eased themselves onto rustic benches beneath the willows. ‘Your cousin Kam? Are you mad?’
    ‘Kam’s a great equine and bovine specialist, you’ve agreed I need a partner – I thought you liked Kam?’
    ‘I love Kam,’ Erin chuckled. ‘You know I do. I adore Kam. Kam’s amazing – and he’ll be a fabulous best man – but a partner in the practice? You know what he’s like. You won’t get a minute of work out of Sophie and Bella. And every woman in Berkshire will be queuing round Nook Green, drooling, much like they were over you until I took you off the market.’
    ‘That’s a very sexist remark.’ Jay raised his eyebrows in mock-horror. ‘And, OK, I’ll admit we Keskars do have something of an animal magnetism.’
    ‘Which is why you’re vets?’ Erin giggled. ‘And don’t be so big-headed. But, seriously, as long as you can keep the slavering hordes at bay, I think it’s a great idea. But would Kam give up his current job to join you?’
    ‘I think so. He’s a locumfor the Cumbrian practices at the moment – a partnership would be a great career move for him. And I could certainly do with him. Still –’ Jay reached for her hand across the table ‘– like your spider phobia treatment, it’s something that can wait until after the wedding.’
    ‘Mine can, yours can’t.’ Erin stroked his fingers. ‘I know how pushed you are. Honestly, I think you should ask Kam sooner rather than later. Ring him tonight and see what he says.’
    ‘Mmm, I might just do that.’ Jay smiled gently at her. ‘So, what about your morning? What happened at Dora Wilberforce’s – apart from the spider?’
    Erin sipped her spritzer, told him about her morning and laughed with him as they talked, watching the eponymous swans gliding past on the unruffled river, the water reflecting the cornflower-blue sky.
    The honey-sweet air was filled with butterflies and birdsong. The sun danced in dapples across their entwined hands on the tabletop. And there wasn’t another soul in sight. Just the two of them, madly in love, with their whole future stretching blissfully ahead of them.
    Perfection.
    ‘Jay! Darling!’
    Erin jerked her head up, rudely dragged from the romantic rural idyll.
    Deena and Tavish Keskar were carefully picking their way across one of the rustic